Handheld Electronic Device With Cable Grounding

ABSTRACT

A handheld electronic device may be provided that contains a conductive housing and other conductive elements. The conductive elements may form an antenna ground plane. One or more antennas for the handheld electronic device may be formed from the ground plane and one or more associated antenna resonating elements. Transceiver circuitry may be connected to the resonating elements by transmission lines such as coaxial cables. Ferrules may be crimped to the coaxial cables. A bracket with extending members may be crimped over the ferrules to ground the coaxial cables to the housing and other conductive elements in the ground plane. The ground plane may contain an antenna slot. A dock connector and flex circuit may overlap the slot in a way that does not affect the resonant frequency of the slot. Electrical components may be isolated from the antenna using isolation elements such as inductors and resistors.

This application is a continuation of patent application Ser. No.14/158,403, filed Jan. 17, 2014, which is a continuation of patentapplication Ser. No. 13/021,689, filed Feb. 4, 2011, which is acontinuation of patent application Ser. No. 11/821,329, filed Jun. 21,2007, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to wireless communications, and moreparticularly, to wireless communications circuitry for handheldelectronic devices.

Handheld electronic devices are becoming increasingly popular. Examplesof handheld devices include handheld computers, cellular telephones,media players, and hybrid devices that include the functionality ofmultiple devices of this type.

Due in part to their mobile nature, handheld electronic devices areoften provided with wireless communications capabilities. Handheldelectronic devices may use wireless communications to communicate withwireless base stations. For example, cellular telephones may communicateusing cellular telephone bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900MHz (e.g., the main Global System for Mobile Communications or GSMcellular telephone bands). Handheld electronic devices may also useother types of communications links. For example, handheld electronicdevices may communicate using the WiFi® (IEEE 802.11) band at 2.4 GHzand the Bluetooth® band at 2.4 GHz. Communications are also possible indata service bands such as the 3G data communications band at 2170 MHzband (commonly referred to as UMTS or Universal MobileTelecommunications System).

To satisfy consumer demand for small form factor wireless devices,manufacturers are continually striving to reduce the size of componentsthat are used in these devices. For example, manufacturers have madeattempts to miniaturize the antennas used in handheld electronicdevices.

A typical antenna may be fabricated by patterning a metal layer on acircuit board substrate or may be formed from a sheet of thin metalusing a foil stamping process. Many devices use planar inverted-Fantennas (PIFAs). Planar inverted-F antennas are formed by locating aplanar resonating element above a ground plane. These techniques can beused to produce antennas that fit within the tight confines of a compacthandheld device. With conventional handheld electronic devices, however,design compromises are made to accommodate compact antennas. Thesedesign compromises may include, for example, compromises related toantenna height above the ground plane, antenna efficiency, and antennabandwidth. Moreover, constraints are often placed on the amount of metalthat can be used in a handheld device and on the location of metalparts. These constraints can adversely affect device operation anddevice appearance.

It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved handheldelectronic devices and antennas for handheld electronic devices.

SUMMARY

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a handheldelectronic device with wireless communications circuitry is provided.The handheld electronic device may have cellular telephone, musicplayer, or handheld computer functionality. The wireless communicationscircuitry may have one or more antennas. The antennas may be used tosupport wireless communications over data communications bands andcellular telephone communications bands.

The handheld electronic device may have a housing. The front face of thehousing may have a display. The display may be a liquid crystal diode(LCD) display or other suitable display. A touch sensor may beintegrated into the display to make the display touch sensitive.

A bezel may be used to attach the display to the housing. The bezel maysurround the periphery of the front face of the housing and may hold thedisplay against the housing.

The bezel and at least a portion of the housing may be formed from metalor other conductive materials. Electrical components, such as thedisplay, printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, and a housingframe may be grounded together to form an antenna ground plane.

An antenna slot may be formed in the ground plane between the bezel andthe conductive portion of the housing. The slot may have a rectangularshape or other suitable shapes. Components such as a dock connector anda flex circuit can be configured so that they overlap somewhat with therectangular slot shape, thereby altering the inner perimeter of theslot. With one suitable arrangement, the dock connector and flex circuitare configured so that slot perimeter length increases due to thepresence of the overlapping dock connector are balanced andsubstantially canceled by perimeter length decreases due to theoverlapping flex circuit. The flex circuit may be used to route signalsfrom the dock connector to processing circuitry on the handheldelectronic device.

The handheld electronic device may have transceiver circuitry forhandling wireless communications signals. With one illustrativearrangement, the handheld electronic device may have first and secondradio-frequency transceivers and first and second corresponding antennaresonating elements. The first antenna resonating element may be usedwith the antenna ground plane to form a cellular telephone antenna. Thesecond antenna resonating element may be used with the antenna groundplane to form a data band antenna (e.g., at 2.4 GHz). The antennaresonating elements may be located over the slot in the ground plane.

The antenna slot may have an associated resonant frequency peak. Theperimeter of the slot may be adjusted so that the resonant frequencypeak for the slot coincides with at least one communications bandassociated with the cellular telephone antenna.

Electrical components such as a menu button or other user interfacecontrol, a speaker module, and a microphone module, may be placed in anoverlapping relationship with the antenna slot and one or more of theantenna resonating elements. To prevent interference between theantennas and these overlapping electrical components, the overlappingelectrical components may be isolated using isolation elements.Inductors or resistors may be used for the isolation elements.

Radio-frequency signals may be routed between the transceiver circuitsand the antennas using transmission lines such as coaxial cables. Forexample, in a handheld electronic device arrangement having twotransceivers and two antennas, two coaxial cables may be used to routeradio-frequency signals to and from the antennas. To ensure propergrounding of the coaxial cables and to prevent reflected signals fromradiating out of the coaxial cables instead of the antennas, the coaxialcables may be electrically shorted to the conductive housing of thehandheld electronic device and other portions of the antenna groundplane.

With one suitable arrangement, at least some segments of the coaxialcables have exposed outer ground connectors. Conductive fasteners may beattached to the exposed ground connector portions of the coaxial cables.For example, metal ferrules may be crimped to the coaxial cables at theexposed ground conductor locations along their lengths, therebyelectrically shorting the metal ferrules to the coaxial cables. In turn,the metal ferrules or other conductive fasteners may be connected to theconductive housing and other portions of the antenna ground plane in thehandheld electronic device.

A J-clip or other suitable conductive member may be used to structurallyand electrically connect the metal ferrules to a metal frame in thedevice housing and other portions of the antenna ground plane. Theconductive member may have bendable extensions and a base that is weldedto the frame. The extensions on the conductive member may be crimpedover the ferrules during assembly. In the event that the handheldelectronic device needs to be reworked or recycled, the extensions maybe bent open to release the coaxial cables. Releasably fastening thecoaxial cable ground conductors to the antenna ground in this way maytherefore facilitate both rework and recycling, while ensuring goodantenna performance by properly grounding the coaxial cables.

Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantageswill be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the followingdetailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative handheld electronicdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative handheld electronicdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partly schematic top view of an illustrative handheldelectronic device containing two radio-frequency transceivers that arecoupled to two associated antenna resonating elements by respectivetransmission lines in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an illustrative planar inverted-Fantenna (PIFA) in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative planarinverted-F antenna of the type shown in FIG. 4 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative antenna performance graph for an antenna ofthe type shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 in which standing-wave-ratio (SWR)values are plotted as a function of operating frequency in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an illustrative planar inverted-Fantenna in which a portion of the antenna's ground plane underneath theantenna's resonating element has been removed to form a slot inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a top view of an illustrative slot antenna in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an illustrative antenna performance graph for an antenna ofthe type shown in FIG. 8 in which standing-wave-ratio (SWR) values areplotted as a function of operating frequency in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an illustrative hybrid PIFA/slotantenna formed by combining a planar inverted-F antenna with a slotantenna in which the antenna is being fed by two coaxial cable feeds inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an illustrative wireless coverage graph in which antennastanding-wave-ratio (SWR) values are plotted as a function of operatingfrequency for a handheld device that contains a hybrid PIFA/slot antennaand a strip antenna in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of an illustrative handheld electronicdevice antenna arrangement in which a first of two handheld electronicdevice antennas has an associated isolation element that serves toreduce interference with from a second of the two handheld electronicdevice antennas in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of an illustrative handheld electronicdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a somewhat simplified interior perspective view of anillustrative handheld electronic device with a conductive bezel inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an exploded top perspective view of an illustrative handheldelectronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 16 is an exploded bottom perspective view of an illustrativehandheld electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 17 is an exploded perspective bottom interior view of anillustrative handheld electronic device showing how a handheldelectronic device may have coaxial cable transmission lines and flexcircuit antenna resonating elements in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 18 is a perspective interior view of an illustrative rear housingportion in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a top view of an illustrative handheld electronic device inwhich a cosmetic plastic cap has been removed to expose antennaresonating elements in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 20 is a perspective view of a portion of an illustrative antennacoaxial cable to which a conductive fastener such as a ferule has beenattached in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a perspective interior view of a portion of an illustrativehandheld electronic device showing how a data channel antenna may beconnected to a coaxial cable transmission line in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a perspective view of a portion of an illustrative handheldelectronic device in which two antenna coaxial cables have been routedtogether along the edge of the device in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a perspective view of an interior end portion of anillustrative handheld electronic device showing how a coaxial cableantenna transmission line may be connected to an antenna in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a perspective view of a portion of the interior of anillustrative handheld electronic device showing how a flex circuit maybe used to route connector signals around the edge of the handheldelectronic device and showing the location of components such as amicrophone, menu button, and speaker module in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a partially sectional perspective view of a portion of theinterior of an illustrative handheld electronic device showing thelocation of an antenna grounding bracket that may be used to makecontact between antenna flex circuit traces and a bezel on the handheldelectronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 26 is a perspective view of an end portion of an illustrativehandheld electronic device showing the location of components such as adock connector and menu button in the handheld electronic device inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a perspective view of a portion of the interior of anillustrative handheld electronic device showing an illustrative flexcircuit antenna configuration in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 28 and 29 are perspective bottom views of the interior of anillustrative handheld electronic device in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a rear view of an upper interior portion of an illustrativehandheld electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 31 is a cross-sectional view of an interior portion of anillustrative handheld electronic device showing how a spring may be usedto help electrically connect a housing frame to a housing in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a rear view of a middle interior portion of an illustrativehandheld electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 33 is a perspective view of an end portion of an illustrativehandheld electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 34 is a cross-sectional view of an interior portion of anillustrative handheld electronic device in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 35 is a partially cross-sectional perspective view of a middleinterior portion of an illustrative handheld electronic device inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of a housing and a bezelin an illustrative handheld electronic device in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 37 is a top view of an antenna slot with overlapping electricalcomponents in an illustrative handheld electronic device in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 38 is circuit diagram showing how isolation elements may be used tointerconnect a menu button with control circuitry in an illustrativehandheld electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 39 is a top view of an illustrative handheld electronic deviceshowing overlap between an electronic component and antenna resonatingelements in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 40 is a perspective view of a section of coaxial cable with exposedsegments and insulated segments in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 41 is an antenna performance graph showing how the resonance peakof a handheld electronic device antenna having a ground plane with aslot can be adjusted by positioning electronic components to change theinner perimeter of the slot in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, andmore particularly, to wireless electronic devices and antennas forwireless electronic devices.

The wireless electronic devices may be portable electronic devices suchas laptop computers or small portable computers of the type that aresometimes referred to as ultraportables. Portable electronic devices mayalso be somewhat smaller devices. Examples of smaller portableelectronic devices include wrist-watch devices, pendant devices,headphone and earpiece devices, and other wearable and miniaturedevices. With one suitable arrangement, which is sometimes describedherein as an example, the portable electronic devices are handheldelectronic devices.

The handheld devices may be, for example, cellular telephones, mediaplayers with wireless communications capabilities, handheld computers(also sometimes called personal digital assistants), remote controllers,global positioning system (GPS) devices, and handheld gaming devices.The handheld devices may also be hybrid devices that combine thefunctionality of multiple conventional devices. Examples of hybridhandheld devices include a cellular telephone that includes media playerfunctionality, a gaming device that includes a wireless communicationscapability, a cellular telephone that includes game and email functions,and a handheld device that receives email, supports mobile telephonecalls, and supports web browsing. These are merely illustrativeexamples.

An illustrative handheld electronic device in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. Device 10 may beany suitable portable or handheld electronic device.

Device 10 may have housing 12. Device 10 may include one or moreantennas for handling wireless communications. Embodiments of device 10that contain one antenna and embodiments of device 10 that contain twoantennas are sometimes described herein as examples.

Device 10 may handle communications over one or more communicationsbands. For example, in a device 10 with two antennas, a first of the twoantennas may be used to handle cellular telephone communications in oneor more frequency bands, whereas a second of the two antennas may beused to handle data communications in a separate communications band.With one suitable arrangement, which is sometimes described herein as anexample, the second antenna is configured to handle data communicationsin a communications band centered at 2.4 GHz (e.g., WiFi and/orBluetooth frequencies). In configurations with multiple antennas, theantennas may be designed to reduce interference so as to allow the twoantennas to operate in relatively close proximity to each other.

Housing 12, which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed ofany suitable materials including, plastic, glass, ceramics, metal, orother suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In somesituations, housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may be formed from adielectric or other low-conductivity material, so that the operation ofconductive antenna elements that are located in proximity to housing 12is not disrupted. Housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may also beformed from conductive materials such as metal. An illustrative housingmaterial that may be used is anodized aluminum. Aluminum is relativelylight in weight and, when anodized, has an attractive insulating andscratch-resistant surface. If desired, other metals can be used for thehousing of device 10, such as stainless steel, magnesium, titanium,alloys of these metals and other metals, etc. In scenarios in whichhousing 12 is formed from metal elements, one or more of the metalelements may be used as part of the antennas in device 10. For example,metal portions of housing 12 may be shorted to an internal ground planein device 10 to create a larger ground plane element for that device 10.To facilitate electrical contact between an anodized aluminum housingand other metal components in device 10, portions of the anodizedsurface layer of the anodized aluminum housing may be selectivelyremoved during the manufacturing process (e.g., by laser etching).

Housing 12 may have a bezel 14. The bezel 14 may be formed from aconductive material. The conductive material may be a metal (e.g., anelemental metal or an alloy) or other suitable conductive materials.With one suitable arrangement, which is sometimes described herein as anexample, bezel 14 may be formed from stainless steel. Stainless steelcan be manufactured so that it has an attractive shiny appearance, isstructurally strong, and does not corrode easily. If desired, otherstructures may be used to form bezel 14. For example, bezel 14 may beformed from plastic that is coated with a shiny coating of metal orother suitable substances. Arrangements in which bezel 14 is formed froma conductive metal such as stainless steel are often described herein asan example.

Bezel 14 may serve to hold a display or other device with a planarsurface in place on device 10. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, bezel 14may be used to hold display 16 in place by attaching display 16 tohousing 12. Device 10 may have front and rear planar surfaces. In theexample of FIG. 1, display 16 is shown as being formed as part of theplanar front surface of device 10. The periphery of the front surfacemay be surrounded by a bezel, such as bezel 14. If desired, theperiphery of the rear surface may be surrounded by a bezel (e.g., in adevice with both front and rear displays).

Display 16 may be a liquid crystal diode (LCD) display, an organic lightemitting diode (OLED) display, or any other suitable display. Theoutermost surface of display 16 may be formed from one or more plasticor glass layers. If desired, touch screen functionality may beintegrated into display 16 or may be provided using a separate touch paddevice. An advantage of integrating a touch screen into display 16 tomake display 16 touch sensitive is that this type of arrangement cansave space and reduce visual clutter.

In a typical arrangement, bezel 14 may have prongs that are used tosecure bezel 14 to housing 12 and that are used to electrically connectbezel 14 to housing 12 and other conductive elements in device 10. Thehousing and other conductive elements form a ground plane for theantenna(s) in the handheld electronic device. A gasket (e.g., an o-ringformed from silicone or other compliant material, a polyester filmgasket, etc.) may be placed between the underside of bezel 14 and theoutermost surface of display 16. The gasket may help to relieve pressurefrom localized pressure points that might otherwise place stress on theglass or plastic cover of display 16. The gasket may also help tovisually hide portions of the interior of device 10 and may help toprevent debris from entering device 10.

In addition to serving as a retaining structure for display 16, bezel 14may serve as a rigid frame for device 10. In this capacity, bezel 14 mayenhance the structural integrity of device 10. For example, bezel 14 maymake device 10 more rigid along its length than would be possible if nobezel were used. Bezel 14 may also be used to improve the appearance ofdevice 10. In configurations such as the one shown in FIG. 1 in whichbezel 14 is formed around the periphery of a surface of device 10 (e.g.,the periphery of the front face of device 10), bezel 14 may help toprevent damage to display 16 (e.g., by shielding display 16 from impactin the event that device 10 is dropped, etc.).

Display screen 16 (e.g., a touch screen) is merely one example of aninput-output device that may be used with handheld electronic device 10.If desired, handheld electronic device 10 may have other input-outputdevices. For example, handheld electronic device 10 may have user inputcontrol devices such as button 19, and input-output components such asport 20 and one or more input-output jacks (e.g., for audio and/orvideo). Button 19 may be, for example, a menu button. Port 20 maycontain a 30-pin data connector (as an example). Openings 24 and 22 may,if desired, form microphone and speaker ports. Display screen 16 may be,for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) display, a plasma display, or multiple displays that useone or more different display technologies. In the example of FIG. 1,display screen 16 is shown as being mounted on the front face ofhandheld electronic device 10, but display screen 16 may, if desired, bemounted on the rear face of handheld electronic device 10, on a side ofdevice 10, on a flip-up portion of device 10 that is attached to a mainbody portion of device 10 by a hinge (for example), or using any othersuitable mounting arrangement. Bezels such as bezel 14 of FIG. 1 may beused to mount display 16 or any other device with a planar surface tohousing 12 in any of these locations.

A user of handheld device 10 may supply input commands using user inputinterface devices such as button 19 and touch screen 16. Suitable userinput interface devices for handheld electronic device 10 includebuttons (e.g., alphanumeric keys, power on-off, power-on, power-off, andother specialized buttons, etc.), a touch pad, pointing stick, or othercursor control device, a microphone for supplying voice commands, or anyother suitable interface for controlling device 10. Although shownschematically as being formed on the top face of handheld electronicdevice 10 in the example of FIG. 1, buttons such as button 19 and otheruser input interface devices may generally be formed on any suitableportion of handheld electronic device 10. For example, a button such asbutton 19 or other user interface control may be formed on the side ofhandheld electronic device 10. Buttons and other user interface controlscan also be located on the top face, rear face, or other portion ofdevice 10. If desired, device 10 can be controlled remotely (e.g., usingan infrared remote control, a radio-frequency remote control such as aBluetooth remote control, etc.).

Handheld device 10 may have ports such as port 20. Port 20, which maysometimes be referred to as a dock connector, 30-pin data portconnector, input-output port, or bus connector, may be used as aninput-output port (e.g., when connecting device 10 to a mating dockconnected to a computer or other electronic device. Device 10 may alsohave audio and video jacks that allow device 10 to interface withexternal components. Typical ports include power jacks to recharge abattery within device 10 or to operate device 10 from a direct current(DC) power supply, data ports to exchange data with external componentssuch as a personal computer or peripheral, audio-visual jacks to driveheadphones, a monitor, or other external audio-video equipment, asubscriber identity module (SIM) card port to authorize cellulartelephone service, a memory card slot, etc. The functions of some or allof these devices and the internal circuitry of handheld electronicdevice 10 can be controlled using input interface devices such as touchscreen display 16.

Components such as display 16 and other user input interface devices maycover most of the available surface area on the front face of device 10(as shown in the example of FIG. 1) or may occupy only a small portionof the front face of device 10. Because electronic components such asdisplay 16 often contain large amounts of metal (e.g., asradio-frequency shielding), the location of these components relative tothe antenna elements in device 10 should generally be taken intoconsideration. Suitably chosen locations for the antenna elements andelectronic components of the device will allow the antennas of handheldelectronic device 10 to function properly without being disrupted by theelectronic components.

With one suitable arrangement, the antennas of device 10 are located inthe lower end 18 of device 10, in the proximity of port 20. An advantageof locating antennas in the lower portion of housing 12 and device 10 isthat this places the antennas away from the user's head when the device10 is held to the head (e.g., when talking into a microphone andlistening to a speaker in the handheld device as with a cellulartelephone). This reduces the amount of radio-frequency radiation that isemitted in the vicinity of the user and minimizes proximity effects.

A schematic diagram of an embodiment of an illustrative handheldelectronic device is shown in FIG. 2. Handheld device 10 may be a mobiletelephone, a mobile telephone with media player capabilities, a handheldcomputer, a remote control, a game player, a global positioning system(GPS) device, a combination of such devices, or any other suitableportable electronic device.

As shown in FIG. 2, handheld device 10 may include storage 34. Storage34 may include one or more different types of storage such as hard diskdrive storage, nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or otherelectrically-programmable-read-only memory), volatile memory (e.g.,battery-based static or dynamic random-access-memory), etc.

Processing circuitry 36 may be used to control the operation of device10. Processing circuitry 36 may be based on a processor such as amicroprocessor and other suitable integrated circuits. With one suitablearrangement, processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 are used to runsoftware on device 10, such as internet browsing applications,voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, emailapplications, media playback applications, operating system functions,etc. Processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 may be used in implementingsuitable communications protocols. Communications protocols that may beimplemented using processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 includeinternet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as WiFi®, protocols for othershort-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth®protocol, etc.).

Input-output devices 38 may be used to allow data to be supplied todevice 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to externaldevices. Display screen 16, button 19, microphone port 24, speaker port22, and dock connector port 20 are examples of input-output devices 38.

Input-output devices 38 can include user input-output devices 40 such asbuttons, touch screens, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touchpads, key pads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, etc. A user can controlthe operation of device 10 by supplying commands through user inputdevices 40. Display and audio devices 42 may include liquid-crystaldisplay (LCD) screens or other screens, light-emitting diodes (LEDs),and other components that present visual information and status data.Display and audio devices 42 may also include audio equipment such asspeakers and other devices for creating sound. Display and audio devices42 may contain audio-video interface equipment such as jacks and otherconnectors for external headphones and monitors.

Wireless communications devices 44 may include communications circuitrysuch as radio-frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry formed from one ormore integrated circuits, power amplifier circuitry, passive RFcomponents, one or more antennas, and other circuitry for handling RFwireless signals. Wireless signals can also be sent using light (e.g.,using infrared communications).

Device 10 can communicate with external devices such as accessories 46and computing equipment 48, as shown by paths 50. Paths 50 may includewired and wireless paths. Accessories 46 may include headphones (e.g., awireless cellular headset or audio headphones) and audio-video equipment(e.g., wireless speakers, a game controller, or other equipment thatreceives and plays audio and video content).

Computing equipment 48 may be any suitable computer. With one suitablearrangement, computing equipment 48 is a computer that has an associatedwireless access point (router) or an internal or external wireless cardthat establishes a wireless connection with device 10. The computer maybe a server (e.g., an internet server), a local area network computerwith or without internet access, a user's own personal computer, a peerdevice (e.g., another handheld electronic device 10), or any othersuitable computing equipment.

The antennas and wireless communications devices of device 10 maysupport communications over any suitable wireless communications bands.For example, wireless communications devices 44 may be used to covercommunications frequency bands such as the cellular telephone bands at850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz, data service bands such as the3G data communications band at 2170 MHz band (commonly referred to asUMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), the WiFi® (IEEE802.11) bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz, the Bluetooth® band at 2.4 GHz,and the global positioning system (GPS) band at 1550 MHz. These aremerely illustrative communications bands over which devices 44 mayoperate. Additional local and remote communications bands are expectedto be deployed in the future as new wireless services are madeavailable. Wireless devices 44 may be configured to operate over anysuitable band or bands to cover any existing or new services ofinterest. Device 10 may use one antenna, two antennas, or more than twoantennas to provide wireless coverage over all communications bands ofinterest.

A top view of an illustrative device 10 in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention is shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3,transceiver circuitry such as transceiver 52A and transceiver 52B may beinterconnected with antenna resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B overrespective transmission lines 56A and 56B. In the example of FIG. 3,there are two transceivers, two corresponding transmission lines, andtwo corresponding antenna resonating elements. This is merelyillustrative. For example, device 10 may have one transceiver, onecorresponding transmission line, and one corresponding antennaresonating element or device 10 may have more than two transceivers,transmission lines, and antenna resonating elements.

Portions of device 10 may form a ground for the antennas formed byresonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B. The antenna ground, which issometimes referred to as the antenna ground plane or antenna groundplane element, may be formed of conductive device structures such asprinted circuit boards, transceiver shielding cans, integrated circuits,batteries, displays, buttons, screws, clamps, brackets, flex circuits,and portions of housing 12. Components 52 of this type are shownschematically in FIG. 3 as transceivers 52A and 52B and as battery andother components 52C. With one suitable arrangement, which is sometimesdescribed herein as an example, such grounded conductive structures arelocated in region 170, above dotted line 23 in FIG. 3.

Bezel 14 may surround device 10 and may be electrically connected toantenna ground (e.g., by shorting bezel 14 to the conductive structuresin region 170 of device 10). When bezel 14 is connected to the groundstructures, bezel 14 forms part of the ground for the antenna(s) ofdevice 10 (i.e., bezel 14 becomes part of antenna ground plane 54-2).

Ground plane 54-2 may have a substantially rectangular shape (i.e., thelateral dimensions of ground plane 54-2 may match those of device 10 andthe periphery of ground plane 54-2 may be substantially rectangular) andmay contain an opening beneath resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B. Theopening in ground plane 54-2 is sometimes referred to as a hole or slotand is generally filed with air and other dielectrics and componentsthat do not significantly affect radio-frequency antenna signals. Theopening may be of any suitable shape. For example, the opening may berectangular in shape. In this type of scenario, bezel 14 may defineright, left, and lower sides of the opening (in the orientation of FIG.3), whereas the conductive device structures above line 23 (e.g.,printed circuit board, conductive housing surfaces, conductive displaycomponents, and other conductive electrical components) may form a topside of the opening (in the orientation of FIG. 3). In some embodimentsof device 10, one or more conductive structures such as dock connector20 (FIG. 1) may overlap at least partly with the otherwise rectangularopening defined by the ground structures above line 23 and bezel 14. Inthis type of arrangement, the opening in ground plane 54-2 may have anon-rectangular shape. Non-rectangular shapes for the opening mayinclude, for example, polygons, squares, ovals, shapes with both flatand curved sides, etc.

When operated in conjunction with antenna ground 54-2, antennaresonating elements such as resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B formantennas 54 for device 10. In the example of FIG. 3, there are twoantennas in device 10, one of which is associated with antennaresonating element 54-1A and one of which is associated with antennaresonating element 54-1B. This is, however, merely illustrative. Theremay, in general, be one antenna, two antennas, or three or more antennasin device 10.

Antenna resonating elements in device 10 may be formed in any suitableshape. With one illustrative arrangement, one of antennas 54 (i.e., theantenna formed from resonating element 54-1A) is based at least partlyon a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) structure and the other antenna(i.e., the antenna formed from resonating element 54-1B) is based on aplanar strip configuration. Although this embodiment may be describedherein as an example, any other suitable shapes may be used forresonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B if desired.

To permit antennas 54 to function properly, part of the housing ofdevice 10 (i.e., portions in region 18) may be formed from plastic oranother suitable dielectric material. With one suitable arrangement,which is described herein as an example, antenna resonating elements54-1A and 54-1B may be formed from conductive copper traces on a flexcircuit. The flex circuit may be mounted to a plastic supporting piecethat is sometimes referred to as an antenna cap or antenna support. Aplastic cover, which is sometimes referred to as a cosmetic cap orhousing cap, may be used to enclose the antennas. The cosmetic cap mayform a portion of the housing of device 10 in region 18. The cosmeticcap may be formed from a plastic based onacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers (sometimes referred to as ABSplastic). If desired, plastic portions of the housing of device 10 maybe formed from low dielectric constant materials. An example of thistype of plastic is the low dielectric constant plastic that is soldunder the trade name IXEF® by Solvay Advanced Polymers, L.L.C. ofAlpharetta, Ga. This plastic, which is a polyarylamide, has asatisfactory structural strength for forming parts of the housing ofdevice 10.

Components such as components 52 may be mounted on one or more circuitboards in device 10. Typical components 52 include integrated circuits,LCD screens, and user input interface buttons. Device 10 also typicallyincludes a battery such as a lithium-ion battery, which may be mountedalong the rear face of housing 12 (as an example). One or moretransceiver circuits such as transceiver circuits 52A and 52B may bemounted to one or more circuit boards in device 10. With one suitablearrangement, two printed circuit boards may be stacked on top of eachother in the housing of device 10. In a configuration for device 10 inwhich there are two antenna resonating elements and two transceivers,each transceiver may be used to transmit radio-frequency signals througha respective one of two respective antenna resonating elements and maybe used to receive radio-frequency signals through a respective one oftwo antenna resonating elements. A common ground 54-2 may be used witheach of the two antenna resonating elements.

With one illustrative arrangement, transceiver 52A may be used totransmit and receive cellular telephone radio-frequency signals andtransceiver 52B may be used to transmit signals in a communications bandsuch as the 3G data communications band at 2170 MHz band (commonlyreferred to as UMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), theWiFi® (IEEE 802.11) bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz, the Bluetooth® band at2.4 GHz, or the global positioning system (GPS) band at 1550 MHz.

The circuit board(s) in device 10 may be formed from any suitablematerials. With one illustrative arrangement, the circuit board orboards of device 10 may be provided using multilayer printed circuitboard material. At least one of the layers may have large planar regionsof conductor that form part of ground plane 54-2. In a typical scenario,ground plane 54-2 is a rectangle that conforms to the generallyrectangular shape of housing 12 and device 10 and matches therectangular lateral dimensions of housing 12. Circuit boards in groundplane 54-2 may, if desired, be electrically connected to conductivehousing portions using shorting brackets, springs, screws, and otherconductive structures.

Suitable circuit board materials for a multilayer printed circuit boardin device 10 include paper impregnated with phonolic resin, resinsreinforced with glass fibers such as fiberglass mat impregnated withepoxy resin (sometimes referred to as FR-4), plastics,polytetrafluoroethylene, polystyrene, polyimide, and ceramics. Circuitboards fabricated from materials such as FR-4 are commonly available,are not cost-prohibitive, and can be fabricated with multiple layers ofmetal (e.g., four layers). So-called flex circuits, which are formedusing flexible circuit board materials such as polyimide, may also beused in device 10. For example, flex circuits may be used to form theantenna resonating elements for antenna(s) 54. In a typical flexcircuit, antenna resonating elements may be formed from copper traces(e.g., on one side of the flex circuit substrate).

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 3, ground plane element 54-2and antenna resonating element 54-1A may form a first antenna for device10. Ground plane element 54-2 and antenna resonating element 54-1B mayform a second antenna for device 10. These two antennas form a multibandantenna having multiple resonating elements. If desired, other antennastructures can be provided. For example, additional resonating elementsmay be used to provide additional gain for an overlapping frequency bandof interest (i.e., a band at which one of these antennas 54 isoperating) or may be used to provide coverage in a different frequencyband of interest (i.e., a band outside of the range of antennas 54).Bezel 14 is typically connected to antenna ground to form part of theground 54-2 and thereby serve as a portion of antenna 54.

Any suitable conductive materials may be used to form ground planeelement 54-2 and resonating elements such as resonating element 54-1Aand 54-1B. Examples of suitable conductive antenna materials includemetals, such as copper, brass, silver, gold, and stainless steel (e.g.,for bezel 14). Conductors other than metals may also be used, ifdesired. The planar conductive elements in antennas 54 are typicallythin (e.g., about 0.2 mm).

Transceiver circuits 52A and 52B (i.e., transceiver circuitry 44 of FIG.2) may be provided in the form of one or more integrated circuits andassociated discrete components (e.g., filtering components). Thesetransceiver circuits may include one or more transmitter integratedcircuits, one or more receiver integrated circuits, switching circuitry,amplifiers, etc. Transceiver circuits 52A and 52B may operatesimultaneously (e.g., one can transmit while the other receives, bothcan transmit at the same time, or both can receive simultaneously).

Each transceiver may have an associated coaxial cable or othertransmission line over which transmitted and received radio frequencysignals are conveyed. As shown in the example of FIG. 3, transmissionline 56A (e.g., a coaxial cable) may be used to interconnect transceiver52A and antenna resonating element 54-1A and transmission line 56B(e.g., a coaxial cable) may be used to interconnect transceiver 52B andantenna resonating element 54-1B. With this type of configuration,transceiver 52B may handle WiFi transmissions over an antenna formedfrom resonating element 54-1B and ground plane 54-2, while transceiver52A may handle cellular telephone transmission over an antenna formedfrom resonating element 54-1A and ground plane 54-2.

An illustrative planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) structure is shown inFIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, PIFA structure 54 may have a ground planeportion 54-2 and a planar resonating element portion 54-1A. Antennas arefed using positive signals and ground signals. The portion of an antennato which the positive signal is provided is sometimes referred to as theantenna's positive terminal or feed terminal. This terminal is alsosometimes referred to as the signal terminal or the center-conductorterminal of the antenna. The portion of an antenna to which the groundsignal is provided may be referred to as the antenna's ground, theantenna's ground terminal, the antenna's ground plane, etc. In antenna54 of FIG. 4, feed conductor 58 is used to route positive antennasignals from signal terminal 60 into antenna resonating element 54-1A.Ground terminal 62 is shorted to ground plane 54-2, which forms theantenna's ground.

The dimensions of the ground plane in a PIFA antenna such as antenna 54of FIG. 4 are generally sized to conform to the maximum size allowed byhousing 12 of device 10. Antenna ground plane 54-2 may be rectangular inshape having width W in lateral dimension 68 and length L in lateraldimension 66. The length of antenna 54 in dimension 66 affects itsfrequency of operation. Dimensions 68 and 66 are sometimes referred toas horizontal dimensions. Resonating element 54-1A is typically spacedseveral millimeters above ground plane 54-2 along vertical dimension 64.The size of antenna 54 in dimension 64 is sometimes referred to asheight H of antenna 54.

A cross-sectional view of PIFA antenna 54 of FIG. 4 is shown in FIG. 5.As shown in FIG. 5, radio-frequency signals may be fed to antenna 54(when transmitting) and may be received from antenna 54 (when receiving)using signal terminal 60 and ground terminal 62. In a typicalarrangement, a coaxial cable or other transmission line has its centerconductor electrically connected to point 60 and its ground conductorelectrically connected to point 62.

A graph of the expected performance of an antenna of the typerepresented by illustrative antenna 54 of FIGS. 4 and 5 is shown in FIG.6. Expected standing wave ratio (SWR) values are plotted as a functionof frequency. The performance of antenna 54 of FIGS. 4 and 5 is given bysolid line 63. As shown, there is a reduced SWR value at frequency f₁,indicating that the antenna performs well in the frequency band centeredat frequency f₁. PIFA antenna 54 also operates at harmonic frequenciessuch as frequency f₂. Frequency f₂ represents the second harmonic ofPIFA antenna (i.e., f₂=2f₁). The dimensions of antenna 54 may beselected so that frequencies f₁ and f₂ are aligned with communicationbands of interest. The frequency f₁ (and harmonic frequency 2f₁) arerelated to the length L of antenna 54 in dimension 66 (L isapproximately equal to one quarter of a wavelength at frequency f₁).

In some configurations, the height H of antenna 54 of FIGS. 4 and 5 indimension 64 may be limited by the amount of near-field coupling betweenresonating element 54-1A and ground plane 54-2. For a specified antennabandwidth and gain, it may not be possible to reduce the height Hwithout adversely affecting performance. All other variables beingequal, reducing height H will generally cause the bandwidth and gain ofantenna 54 to be reduced.

As shown in FIG. 7, the minimum vertical dimension of the PIFA antennacan be reduced while still satisfying minimum bandwidth and gainconstraints by introducing a dielectric region 70 in the form of anopening (slot) under antenna resonating element 54-1A. Slot 70 may befilled with electrical parts with radio-frequency isolation, air,plastic, or other suitable dielectric and represents a cut-away orremoved portion of ground plane 54-2. With one suitable arrangement,which is shown in FIG. 7, the removed region 70 forms a rectangularslot. Slots of other shapes (oval, meandering, curved sides, straightsides, etc.) may also be formed.

The slot in ground plane 54-2 may be any suitable size. For example, theslot may be slightly smaller than the outermost rectangular outline ofresonating elements 54-1A and 54-2 as viewed from the top vieworientation of FIG. 3. Typical resonating element lateral dimensions areon the order of 0.5 cm to 10 cm.

The presence of slot 70 reduces near-field electromagnetic couplingbetween resonating element 54-1A and ground plane 54-2 and allows heightH in vertical dimension 64 to be made smaller than would otherwise bepossible while satisfying a given set of bandwidth and gain constraints.For example, height H may be in the range of 1-5 mm, may be in the rangeof 2-5 mm, may be in the range of 2-4 mm, may be in the range of 1-3 mm,may be in the range of 1-4 mm, may be in the range of 1-10 mm, may belower than 10 mm, may be lower than 4 mm, may be lower than 3 mm, may belower than 2 mm, or may be in any other suitable range of verticaldisplacements above ground plane element 54-2.

If desired, the portion of ground plane 54-2 that contains slot 70 maybe used to form a slot antenna. The slot antenna structure may be usedalone to form an antenna for device 10 or the slot antenna structure maybe used in conjunction with one or more resonating elements to form ahybrid antenna 54. For example, one or more PIFA resonating elements maybe used with the slot antenna structure to form a hybrid antenna. Byoperating antenna 54 so that it exhibits both PIFA operatingcharacteristics and slot antenna operating characteristics, antennaperformance can be improved.

A top view of an illustrative slot antenna is shown in FIG. 8. Antenna72 of FIG. 8 is typically thin in the dimension into the page (i.e.,antenna 72 is planar with its plane lying in the page). Slot 70 may beformed in the center of antenna conductor 76. A coaxial cable such ascable 56A or other transmission line path may be used to feed antenna72. In the example of FIG. 8, antenna 72 is fed so that center conductor82 of coaxial cable 56A is connected to signal terminal 80 (i.e., thepositive or feed terminal of antenna 72) and the outer braid of coaxialcable 56A, which forms the ground conductor for cable 56A, is connectedto ground terminal 78.

When antenna 72 is fed using the arrangement of FIG. 8, the antenna'sperformance is given by the graph of FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, antenna72 operates in a frequency band that is centered about center frequencyf₂. The center frequency f₂ is determined by the dimensions of slot 70.Slot 70 has an inner perimeter P that is equal to two times dimension Xplus two times dimension Y (i.e., P=2X+2Y). At center frequency f₂,perimeter P is equal to one wavelength.

Because the center frequency f₂ can be tuned by proper selection ofperimeter P, the slot antenna of FIG. 8 can be configured so thatfrequency f₂ of the graph in FIG. 9 coincides with frequency f₂ of thegraph in FIG. 6. In an antenna design of this type in which slot 70 iscombined with a PIFA structure, the presence of slot 70 increases thegain of the antenna at frequency f₂. In the vicinity of frequency f₂,the increase in performance from using slot 70 results in the antennaperformance plot given by dotted line 79 in FIG. 6.

If desired, the value of perimeter P may be selected to resonate at afrequency that is different from frequency f₂ (i.e., out-of-band). Inthis scenario, the presence of slot 70 does not increase the performanceof the antenna at resonant frequency f₂. Nevertheless, the removal ofthe conductive material from the region of slot 70 reduces near-fieldelectromagnetic coupling between resonating elements such as resonatingelement 54-1A and ground plane 54-2 and allows height H in verticaldimension 64 to be made smaller than would otherwise be possible whilesatisfying a given set of bandwidth and gain constraints.

The position of terminals 80 and 78 may be selected for impedancematching. If desired, terminals such as terminals 84 and 86, whichextend around one of the corners of slot 70 may be used to feed antenna72. In this situation, the distance between terminals 84 and 86 may bechosen to properly adjust the impedance of antenna 72. In theillustrative arrangement of FIG. 8, terminals 84 and 86 are shown asbeing respectively configured as a slot antenna ground terminal and aslot antenna signal terminal, as an example. If desired, terminal 84could be used as a ground terminal and terminal 86 could be used as asignal terminal. Slot 70 is typically air-filled, but may, in general,be filled with any suitable dielectric.

By using slot 70 in combination with a PIFA-type resonating element suchas resonating element 54-1A, a hybrid PIFA/slot antenna is formed(sometimes referred to herein as a hybrid antenna). Handheld electronicdevice 10 may, if desired, have a PIFA/slot hybrid antenna of this type(e.g., for cellular telephone communications) and a strip antenna (e.g.,for WiFi/Bluetooth communications).

An illustrative configuration in which the hybrid PIFA/slot antennaformed by resonating element 54-1A, slot 70, and ground plane 54-2 isfed using two coaxial cables (or other transmission lines) is shown inFIG. 10. When the antenna is fed as shown in FIG. 10, both the PIFA andslot antenna portions of the antenna are active. As a result, antenna 54of FIG. 10 operates in a hybrid PIFA/slot mode. Coaxial cables 56A-1 and56A-2 have inner conductors 82-1 and 82-2, respectively. Coaxial cables56A-1 and 56A-2 also each have a conductive outer braid groundconductor. The outer braid conductor of coaxial cable 56A-1 iselectrically shorted to ground plane 54-2 at ground terminal 88. Theground portion of cable 56A-2 is shorted to ground plane 54-2 at groundterminal 92. The signal connections from coaxial cables 56A-1 and 56A-2are made at signal terminals 90 and 94, respectively.

With the arrangement of FIG. 10, two separate sets of antenna terminalsare used. Coaxial cable 56A-1 feeds the PIFA portion of the hybridPIFA/slot antenna using ground terminal 88 and signal terminal 90 andcoaxial cable 56A-2 feeds the slot antenna portion of the hybridPIFA/slot antenna using ground terminal 92 and signal terminal 94. Eachset of antenna terminals therefore operates as a separate feed for thehybrid PIFA/slot antenna. Signal terminal 90 and ground terminal 88serve as antenna terminals for the PIFA portion of the antenna, whereassignal terminal 94 and ground terminal 92 serve as antenna feed pointsfor the slot portion of antenna 54. These two separate antenna feedsallow the antenna to function simultaneously using both its PIFA and itsslot characteristics. If desired, the orientation of the feeds can bechanged. For example, coaxial cable 56A-2 may be connected to slot 70using point 94 as a ground terminal and point 92 as a signal terminal orusing ground and signal terminals located at other points along theperiphery of slot 70.

When multiple transmission lines such as transmission lines 56A-1 and56A-2 are used for the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna, each transmission linemay be associated with a respective transceiver circuit (e.g., twocorresponding transceiver circuits such as transceiver circuit 52A ofFIG. 3).

In operation in handheld device 10, a hybrid PIFA/slot antenna formedfrom resonating element 54-1A of FIG. 3 and a corresponding slot that islocated beneath element 54-1A in ground plane 54-2 can be used to coverthe GSM cellular telephone bands at 850 and 900 MHz and at 1800 and 1900MHz (or other suitable frequency bands), whereas a strip antenna (orother suitable antenna structure) can be used to cover an additionalband centered at frequency f_(n) (or another suitable frequency band orbands). By adjusting the size of the strip antenna or other antennastructure formed from resonating element 54-1B, the frequency f_(n) maybe controlled so that it coincides with any suitable frequency band ofinterest (e.g., 2.4 GHz for Bluetooth/WiFi, 2170 MHz for UMTS, or 1550MHz for GPS).

A graph showing the wireless performance of device 10 when using twoantennas (e.g., a hybrid PIFA/slot antenna formed from resonatingelement 54-1A and a corresponding slot and an antenna formed fromresonating element 54-2) is shown in FIG. 11. In the example of FIG. 11,the PIFA operating characteristics of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna areused to cover the 850/900 MHz and the 1800/1900 MHz GSM cellulartelephone bands, the slot antenna operating characteristics of thehybrid PIFA/slot antenna are used to provide additional gain andbandwidth in the 1800/1900 MHz range, and the antenna formed fromresonating element 54-1B is used to cover the frequency band centered atf_(n) (e.g., 2.4 GHz for Bluetooth/WiFi, 2170 MHz for UMTS, or 1550 MHzfor GPS). This arrangement provides coverage for four cellular telephonebands and a data band.

If desired, the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna formed from resonating element54-1A and slot 70 may be fed using a single coaxial cable or other suchtransmission line. An illustrative configuration in which a singletransmission line is used to simultaneously feed both the PIFA portionand the slot portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna and in which astrip antenna formed from resonating element 54-1B is used to provideadditional frequency coverage for device 10 is shown in FIG. 12. Groundplane 54-2 may be formed from metal components in housing 10 including ametal frame coated with plastic (as an example) that has conductiveedges 96 that are electrically connected to bezel 14 (FIG. 1).

As shown in the somewhat schematic representation of FIG. 12, resonatingelement 54-1B may have an L-shaped conductive strip formed fromconductive branch 122 and conductive branch 120. Branches 120 and 122may be formed from metal that is supported by dielectric supportstructure 102. With one suitable arrangement, the resonating elementstructures of FIG. 12 are formed as part of a patterned flex circuitthat is attached to antenna cap support structure 102 (e.g., byadhesive).

Coaxial cable 56B or other suitable transmission line has a groundconductor connected to ground terminal 132 and a signal conductorconnected to signal terminal 124. Any suitable mechanism may be used forattaching the transmission line to the antenna. In the example of FIG.12, the outer braid ground conductor of coaxial cable 56B is connectedto ground terminal 132 using metal tab 130. Metal tab 130 may be shortedto housing 12. Transmission line connection structure 126 may be, forexample, a mini UFL coaxial cable connector. The ground of connector 126may be shorted to terminal 132 and the center conductor of connector 126may be shorted to conductive path 124. Conductive path 124 may includecircuit components (e.g., a capacitor) for impedance matching.

When feeding antenna 54-1B, terminal 132 may be considered to form theantenna's ground terminal and the center conductor of connector 126and/or conductive path 124 may be considered to form the antenna'ssignal terminal. The location along dimension 128 at which conductivepath 124 meets conductive strip 120 can be adjusted for impedancematching.

Planar antenna resonating element 54-1A of the illustrative hybridPIFA/slot antenna of FIG. 12 may have an F-shaped structure with shorterarm 98 and longer arm 100. The lengths of arms 98 and 100 and thedimensions of other structures such as slot 70 in ground plane 54-2 maybe adjusted to tune the frequency coverage and antenna isolationproperties of device 10. For example, length L of ground plane 54-2 maybe configured so that the PIFA portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antennaformed with resonating element 54-1A resonates at the 850/900 MHz GSMbands, thereby providing coverage at frequency f₁ of FIG. 11. The lengthof arm 100 may be selected to resonate at the 1800/1900 MHz bands,thereby helping the PIFA/slot antenna to provide coverage at frequencyf₂ of FIG. 11. The perimeter of slot 70 may be configured to resonate atthe 1800/1900 MHz bands, thereby reinforcing the resonance of arm 100and further helping the PIFA/slot antenna to provide coverage atfrequency f₂ of FIG. 11 (i.e., by improving performance from the solidline 63 to the dotted line 79 in the vicinity of frequency f₂, as shownin FIG. 6). If desired, the perimeter of slot 70 may be configured toresonate away from the 1800/1900 MHz bands (i.e., out-of-band). Slot 70may also be used without the PIFA structures of FIG. 12 (i.e., as a pureslot antenna).

In a PIFA/slot configuration, arm 98 can serve as an isolation elementthat reduces interference between the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna formedfrom resonating element 54-1A and the L-shaped strip antenna formed fromresonating element 54-1B. The dimensions of arm 98 can be configured tointroduce an isolation maximum at a desired frequency, which is notpresent without the arm. It is believed that configuring the dimensionsof arm 98 allows manipulation of the currents induced on the groundplane 54-2 from resonating element 54-1A. This manipulation can minimizeinduced currents around the signal and ground areas of resonatingelement 54-1B. Minimizing these currents in turn may reduce the signalcoupling between the two antenna feeds. With this arrangement, arm 98can be configured to resonate at a frequency that minimizes currentsinduced by arm 100 at the feed of the antenna formed from resonatingelement 54-1B (i.e., in the vicinity of paths 122 and 124).

Additionally, arm 98 can act as a radiating arm for element 54-1A. Itsresonance can add to the bandwidth of element 54-1A and can improvein-band efficiency, even though its resonance may be different than thatdefined by slot 70 and arm 100. Typically an increase in bandwidth ofradiating element 51-1A that reduces its frequency separation fromelement 51-1B would be detrimental to isolation. However, extraisolation afforded by arm 98 removes this negative effect and, moreover,provides significant improvement with respect to the isolation betweenelements 54-1A and 54-1B without arm 98.

As shown in FIG. 12, arms 98 and 100 of resonating element 54-1A andresonating element 54-1B may be mounted on support structure 102(sometimes referred to as an antenna cap). Support structure 102 may beformed from plastic (e.g., ABS plastic) or other suitable dielectric.The surfaces of structure 102 may be flat or curved. The resonatingelements 54-1A and 54-1B may be formed directly on support structure 102or may be formed on a separate structure such as a flex circuitsubstrate that is attached to support structure 102 (as examples).

Resonating elements 54-1A and 54-B may be formed by any suitable antennafabrication technique such as metal stamping, cutting, etching, ormilling of conductive tape or other flexible structures, etching metalthat has been sputter-deposited on plastic or other suitable substrates,printing from a conducive slurry (e.g., by screen printing techniques),patterning metal such as copper that makes up part of a flex circuitsubstrate that is attached to support 102 by adhesive, screws, or othersuitable fastening mechanisms, etc.

A conductive path such as conductive strip 104 may be used toelectrically connect the resonating element 54-1A to ground plane 54-2at terminal 106. A screw or other fastener at terminal 106 may be usedto electrically and mechanically connect strip 104 (and thereforeresonating element 54-1A) to edge 96 of ground plane 54-2 (bezel 14).Conductive structures such as strip 104 and other such structures in theantennas may also be electrically connected to each other usingconductive adhesive.

A coaxial cable such as cable 56A or other transmission line may beconnected to the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna to transmit and receiveradio-frequency signals. The coaxial cable or other transmission linemay be connected to the structures of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna usingany suitable electrical and mechanical attachment mechanism. As shown inthe illustrative arrangement of FIG. 12, mini UFL coaxial cableconnector 110 may be used to connect coaxial cable 56A or othertransmission lines to antenna conductor 112. A center conductor of thecoaxial cable or other transmission line is connected to centerconnector 108 of connector 110. An outer braid ground conductor of thecoaxial cable is electrically connected to ground plane 54-2 viaconnector 110 at point 115 (and, if desired, may be shorted to groundplane 54-2 at other attachment points upstream of connector 110). Abracket may be used to ground connector 110 to bezel 14 at this portionof the ground plane.

Conductor 108 may be electrically connected to antenna conductor 112.Conductor 112 may be formed from a conductive element such as a strip ofmetal (e.g., a copper trace) formed on a sidewall surface of supportstructure 102 (e.g., as part of the flex circuit that containsresonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B.). Conductor 112 may be directlyelectrically connected to resonating element 54-1A (e.g., at portion116) or may be electrically connected to resonating element 54-1Athrough tuning capacitor 114 or other suitable electrical components.The size of tuning capacitor 114 can be selected to tune antenna 54 andensure that antenna 54 covers the frequency bands of interest for device10.

Slot 70 may lie beneath resonating element 54-1A of FIG. 12. The signalfrom center conductor 108 may be routed to point 106 on ground plane54-2 in the vicinity of slot 70 using a conductive path formed fromantenna conductor 112, optional capacitor 114 or other such tuningcomponents, antenna conductor 117, and antenna conductor 104.

The configuration of FIG. 12 allows a single coaxial cable or othertransmission line path to simultaneously feed both the PIFA portion andthe slot portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna.

Grounding point 115 functions as the ground terminal for the slotantenna portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna that is formed by slot70 in ground plane 54-2. Point 106 serves as the signal terminal for theslot antenna portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna. Signals are fed topoint 106 via the path formed by conductive path 112, tuning element114, path 117, and path 104.

For the PIFA portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna, point 115 servesas antenna ground. Center conductor 108 and its attachment point toconductor 112 serve as the signal terminal for the PIFA. Conductor 112serves as a feed conductor and feeds signals from signal terminal 108 toPIFA resonating element 54-1A.

In operation, both the PIFA portion and slot antenna portion of thehybrid PIFA/slot antenna contribute to the performance of the hybridPIFA/slot antenna.

The PIFA functions of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna are obtained by usingpoint 115 as the PIFA ground terminal (as with terminal 62 of FIG. 7),using point 108 at which the coaxial center conductor connects toconductive structure 112 as the PIFA signal terminal (as with terminal60 of FIG. 7), and using conductive structure 112 as the PIFA feedconductor (as with feed conductor 58 of FIG. 7). During operation,antenna conductor 112 serves to route radio-frequency signals fromterminal 108 to resonating element 54-1A in the same way that conductor58 routes radio-frequency signal from terminal 60 to resonating element54-1A in FIGS. 4 and 5, whereas conductive line 104 serves to terminatethe resonating element 54-1A to ground plane 54-2, as with groundingportion 61 of FIGS. 4 and 5.

The slot antenna functions of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna are obtainedby using grounding point 115 as the slot antenna ground terminal (aswith terminal 86 of FIG. 8), using the conductive path formed of antennaconductor 112, tuning element 114, antenna conductor 117, and antennaconductor 104 as conductor 82 of FIG. 8 or conductor 82-2 of FIG. 10,and by using terminal 106 as the slot antenna signal terminal (as withterminal 84 of FIG. 8).

The illustrative configuration of FIG. 10 demonstrates how slot antennaground terminal 92 and PIFA antenna ground terminal 88 may be formed atseparate locations on ground plane 54-2. In the configuration of FIG.12, a single coaxial cable may be used to feed both the PIFA portion ofthe antenna and the slot portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna. Thisis because terminal 115 serves as both a PIFA ground terminal for thePIFA portion of the hybrid antenna and a slot antenna ground terminalfor the slot antenna portion of the hybrid antenna. Because the groundterminals of the PIFA and slot antenna portions of the hybrid antennaare provided by a common ground terminal structure and becauseconductive paths 112, 117, and 104 serve to distribute radio-frequencysignals to and from the resonating element 54-1A and ground plane 54-2as needed for PIFA and slot antenna operations, a single transmissionline (e.g., coaxial cable 56A) may be used to send and receiveradio-frequency signals that are transmitted and received using both thePIFA and slot portions of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna.

If desired, other antenna configurations may be used that support hybridPIFA/slot operation. For example, the radio-frequency tuningcapabilities of tuning capacitor 114 may be provided by a network ofother suitable tuning components, such as one or more inductors, one ormore resistors, direct shorting metal strip(s), capacitors, orcombinations of such components. One or more tuning networks may also beconnected to the hybrid antenna at different locations in the antennastructure. These configurations may be used with single-feed andmultiple-feed transmission line arrangements.

Moreover, the location of the signal terminal and ground terminal in thehybrid PIFA/slot antenna may be different from that shown in FIG. 12.For example, terminals 115/108 and terminal 106 can be moved relative tothe locations shown in FIG. 12, provided that the connecting conductors112, 117, and 104 are suitably modified.

The PIFA portion of the hybrid PIFA/slot antenna can be provided using asubstantially F-shaped conductive element having one or more arms suchas arms 98 and 100 of FIG. 12 or using other arrangements (e.g., armsthat are straight, serpentine, curved, have 90° bends, have 180° bends,etc.). The strip antenna formed with resonating element 54-1B can alsobe formed from conductors of other shapes. Use of different shapes forthe arms or other portions of resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B helpsantenna designers to tailor the frequency response of antenna 54 to itsdesired frequencies of operation and maximize isolation. The sizes ofthe structures in resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B can be adjusted asneeded (e.g., to increase or decrease gain and/or bandwidth for aparticular operating band, to improve isolation at a particularfrequency, etc.).

A somewhat schematic cross-sectional view of an illustrative handheldelectronic device 10 in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention is shown in FIG. 13. As shown in FIG. 13, ground plane 54-2may include bezel 14, display 16, housing 12, and other conductivecomponents 52 in region 170 of device 10. Housing 12 in region 18 may bemade up of a plastic cosmetic cap, which allows antenna resonatingelements (e.g., elements 54-1A and 54-1B of FIG. 12) to be placed inregion 171. Bezel 14 may be used to mount display 16 to housing 12.Electrical components 52 such as printed circuit boards, flex circuits,integrated circuits, batteries, and other devices may be mounted withinportion 170 of device 10. The conductive structures within portion 170can be electrically connected to one another so that they serve asground for the antenna(s) in device 10. Bezel 14 can also beelectrically connected to portion 170 (e.g., through welds, metalscrews, metal clips, press-fit contact between adjacent metal parts,wires, etc.).

As a result of these electrical connections, bezel 14 and conductiveportions of device 10 in region 170 form conductive ground plane 54-2,as shown in FIG. 14. The conductive portions of device 10 in region 170may lie on one side of dotted line 23, whereas at least some of theconductive portions of bezel 14 may extend outwards from portions 170and may lie on the other side of dotted line 23, thereby defining slot70.

With one suitable configuration, slot 70 may have an area equal to theopening between bezel 14 and the conductive portions of device 10 thatlie on the opposite side of dotted line 23. With other suitableconfigurations, one or more electrical components may overlap with theotherwise rectangular opening formed between bezel 14 and region 170 toform slot with smaller dimensions (rectangular or non-rectangular).

An exploded perspective view of an illustrative handheld electronicdevice 10 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention isshown in FIG. 15. As shown in FIG. 15, handheld electronic device 10 mayhave a conductive bezel such as conductive bezel 14 for securing display16 or other such planar components to lower housing portion 12. A gasketsuch as gasket 150 may be interposed between bezel 14 and the exposedsurface of display 16. Gasket 150 may be formed of silicone, polyesterfilm, or other soft plastic (as an example). Gasket 150 may have anysuitable cross-sectional shape. For example, gasket 150 may have acircular cross section (i.e., gasket 150 may be an o-ring having, forexample, a 0.6 mm diameter), gasket 150 may have a rectangularcross-section, etc. Gasket 150 may help to seal the surface of display16 to prevent debris from entering device 10, may help to center thedisplay within bezel 14, and may help to hide potentially unsightlyportions of display 16 from view. Display 16 may have one or more holesor cut-away portions. For example, display 16 may have hole 152 toaccommodate button 19 and hole 182 to accommodate sound from a speaker.

If desired, display 16 may be touch sensitive. In touch sensitivearrangements, display 16 may have a touch sensor such as touch sensor154 that is mounted below the uppermost surface of display screen 16just above the liquid crystal display (LCD) element. Frame subassembly180 may receive the display and touch sensor components associated withdisplay 16. Antenna structures may be housed behind cosmetic plastic cap212. Cosmetic plastic cap 212 may also cover components such as amicrophone and speaker. Additional components (e.g., an additionalspeaker, audio jacks, a SIM card tray, buttons such as a hold button,volume button, ringer select button, and camera module, etc.) may behoused in region 158 at the opposite end of device 10.

Bezel 14 may be secured using any suitable technique (e.g., with prongsthat mate with holes in a spring fastened to housing 12, with fasteners,with snaps, with adhesive, using welding techniques, using a combinationof these approaches, etc.). As shown in FIG. 15, bezel 14 may haveportions 160 that extend downwards. Portions 160 may take the form ofprongs, rails, and other protruding features. Portions 160 may beconfigured so that the outer perimeter of portions 160 mates withstructures along the inner perimeter of housing 12 when framesubassembly 180 is mounted in housing 12 and when bezel 14 is used toattach display 16 to device 10.

Portions 160 may have screw holes 162 through which screws may mate withcorresponding threaded standoffs when attaching bezel 14 to housingsubassembly 180. The screws and other conductive structures (e.g.,welds, wires, springs, brackets, etc.) may be used to electricallyconnect bezel 14 to grounded elements within device 10. For ease ofassembly, frame subassembly 180 may have tabs, snaps, or otherattachment structures. For example, frame subassembly 180 may have holes164 that receive mating fingers on display 16. Prongs (ears) 186 mayreceive screws that are used in securing and grounding bezel 14 to dockconnector 20.

Frame subassembly 180 may include a frame that is based on a thin (e.g.,0.3 mm) stainless steel layer onto which plastic features have beenovermolded and attached (e.g., with a heat staking process) or othersuitable structural components. Frame top 156 may be recessed withinframe subassembly 180 to accommodate the touch sensor and other portions154 of display 16. Sensors such as an ambient light sensor and aproximity sensor may be mounted in region 184.

An exploded perspective rear view of the illustrative device of FIG. 15is shown in FIG. 16. As shown in FIG. 16, housing 12 may have ground tab190. Tab 190 may be used to help ground antenna resonating element 54-1Ato conductive housing 12. To ensure that tab 190 makes good electricalcontact to housing 12, anodized portions of housing 12 may be removedusing laser etching.

Logo 192 may be formed of a metal such as stainless steel (as anexample). Logo 192 may be attached to housing 12 using adhesive or othersuitable attachment mechanisms. Buttons such as a volume button, holdbutton, and ringer mode select button may be located in region 194.

Camera module 196 may be attached to frame subassembly 180.Transceivers, such as transceiver 52A and 52B of FIG. 3 may also beattached to frame subassembly 180. As shown in FIG. 16, transceiver 52Bmay be housed in conductive can 198 and transceiver 52A may be housed inconductive can 200. Cans such as cans 198 and 200 serve asradio-frequency shielding enclosures that reduce electromagneticinterference (EMI). SIM tray 202 on frame subassembly 180 may be used toreceive SIM cards.

Cosmetic cap 212 may have a recess such as recess 204 that accommodatesdock connector 20 when cap 212 is attached to device 10. Cap 212 mayhave inwardly protruding snap keys (plastic beams) that are guidedthrough holes in the frame during assembly and that snap into bezel 14,thereby preventing cap 212 from becoming detached from device 10 duringuse. Bezel 14 may have rails 208 that guide cosmetic cap 212 duringassembly and that help to retain cap 212 on device 10.

Antenna resonating elements such as antenna resonating elements 54-1Aand 54-1B may be formed from conductive traces on flex circuit 210. Flexcircuit 210 may be mounted on a plastic antenna cap (as an example).

The exploded view of device 10 in FIG. 17 shows an illustrativearrangement for coaxial cables 56A and 56B and shows an illustrativeshape for flex circuit 210. Flex circuit 210 may have slots 227 andother features to help flex circuit 210 conform to the curved surface ofantenna cap 102. Screw 218 and clip 248 (also sometimes referred to as abracket or spring) may be used to ground coaxial cable connector 110 tobezel 14 at location 222. Screw 220 and clip 246 (also sometimesreferred to as a bracket or spring) may be used to ground bezel 14 todock connector 20 at location 224. Clip 246 may also be electricallyconnected to conductive strip 104 (FIG. 12).

Cables 56A and 56B may have exposed portions at which their outer groundconductors (e.g., braid conductors or other outer conductors) areexposed (i.e., not covered by plastic or other insulating materials).These exposed portions allow cables 56A and 56B to be grounded to bezel14 and the rest of ground plane 52-4 along their length. This providesgood grounding for cables 56A and 56B and prevents cables 56A and 56Bfrom acting as antenna elements. Without grounding along their lengths,cables 56A and 56B might radiate radio-frequency signals reflected backfrom antenna resonating elements 52-1A and 52-1B.

The exposed conductive portions of cables 56A and 56B form electricalconnections between the ground conductors of the cables and ground plane54-2. Cables 56A and 56B may be bare of insulator along their entirelengths or along only certain isolated segments. For example, cables 56Aand 56B may have no insulator directly under ferrules 226. Ferrules 226(or other suitable conductive fasteners) may be connected to theconductive braid in the exposed segments of cables 56A and 56B bycrimping. One or more brackets or other suitable conductive fasteningmembers (sometimes referred to as J-brackets) may be used tostructurally and electrically connect ferrules 226 to ground plane 54-2(i.e., by shorting ferrules 226 to conductive portions of device 10 suchas the metal portions of frame subassembly 180 and bezel 14).

An interior perspective view of a conductive housing portion 12 is shownin FIG. 18. As shown in FIG. 18 ground tab 190 may be part of a groundbracket 228. Ground bracket 228 may have a tab under region 230 thatslides into a mating channel in housing 12. The anodized surface ofhousing 12 in this region may be stripped using laser etching, therebyallowing the tab in region 230 to make good electrical contact betweenbracket 228 (and its tab 190) and housing 12.

Metal strips such as strip 234, which are sometimes referred to asbrackets or rails, may be formed of cast magnesium and may be attachedto housing 12 using adhesive (as an example). For example, a rubberyglue may be used to attached strips such as strip 234 to housing 12.Metal strips such as strip 234 may be spaced apart from the sidewalls ofhousing 12 to form channels such as channel 232. A spring in eachchannel may have holes that engage mating hooks on bezel 14.

Bracket 242 may be used to hold an audio jack, vibrator, and a buttonwire flex circuit. Bracket 242 may be formed from a metal such as castmagnesium.

Top ground bracket 240 may have fingers that engage housing 12. Theanodized surface of housing 12 may be removed by laser etching in thefinger contact region to ensure that ground bracket 240 makes goodelectrical contact to housing 12. Ground plane components in device 10that are placed on top of ground bracket 240 may make contact to housing12 through ground bracket 240.

Logo 192 may be shorted to housing 12 to ensure that logo 192 does notelectrically float relative to housing 12. Laser etching may be used toremove a portion of the anodized surface of housing 12 under region 236to ensure a good electrical contact between logo 192 and housing 12.Logo 192 may be adhesively bonded to housing 12. In one embodiment, logo192 may be bonded to housing 12 using a thermal bonding agent and anepoxy resin bonding agent.

Pin 238 may serve as a pivot for a SIM card ejection tray arm.

A top view of the end of an illustrative device 10 with its cosmetic endcap removed is shown in FIG. 19. Microphone rubber boot 244 may form aseal between the cosmetic cap and microphone inlet port 260. Microphoneinlet port 260 may be used to channel sound to a microphone in device10. Electrical connections may be made at locations 254. A screw may beused at each location 254. The screws may engage threaded portions of adock flange associated with dock connector 20. The screws pass throughbezel tabs 186 on bezel 14. On the left size of dock connector 20 (inthe orientation of FIG. 19), the screw also passes through spring 246and flex circuit 210. Spring 246 may be formed from a metal such asstainless steel. A conductive trace (conductive strip 104 of FIG. 12) islocated adjacent to spring 246. When the screw is screwed into theframe, the spring 246 presses outwards between the flex circuit traceand bezel tab 186, thereby making good electrical contact at point 106(FIG. 12) between bezel 14 and conductive strip 104 (FIG. 12).

Coaxial cable connector 110 may be snapped into a mating connector onflex circuit 210. Ground clip or bracket 248 (which is shown in apartially uncompressed state in FIG. 19) may be used to help holdconnector 110 in place and may be used to form an electrical contact tobezel (see point 115 of FIG. 12).

Frame portion 253 may be used to support cosmetic cap 212 in the eventthat external pressure is placed on cosmetic cap 212 (i.e., in the eventthat device 10 is inadvertently dropped).

Brackets 250 may be connected to or formed as part of brackets 234 ofFIG. 18 and may be screwed into the frame of device 10 (e.g., frameportions 252) using screws 254.

Capacitor 258 may form part of path 124 (FIG. 12). Epoxy 256 may be usedto provide capacitor 258 with structural support (i.e., to protectcapacitor 258 from cracking during assembly). Capacitor 114 may also beprotected using epoxy.

Flex circuit 210 may be mounted to antenna cap 102 using pressuresensitive adhesive. Slots 227 allow the conductive traces of resonatingelement such as resonating element 54-1A to conform to the curvedsurface of cap 102. The conductive traces may be formed of copper orother suitable conductive material.

At location 262, coaxial cable 56A may be routed away from the antennatraces, so that cable 56A may be maintained closer to ground plane 54-2(e.g., bezel 14) and further away from resonating element 54-1B.

Grounding clip 190 may engage ferrule 226 to ensure that ferrule 226 andcoaxial cable 56B are grounded to housing 12. Screw 276 may be used tohold down grounding clip 190 on antenna cap 102. Trace 264 may form partof the ground for antenna resonating element 54-1B in conjunction withground tab 190. Conductive branches 120 and 122 may form part of antennaresonating element 54-1B.

Alignment posts 266 may mate with corresponding holes in flex circuit212. This helps to align flex circuit 210 to antenna cap 102 duringassembly.

Ferrule 226 of FIG. 19 is shown in more detail in FIG. 20. As shown inFIG. 20, a biasing member such as spring 268 may be located between partof antenna cap 102 and underside 274 of ferrule 226 adjacent to framecross member 280. Spring 268 may be formed of urethane or other suitableresilient material. During assembly, ferrule 226 may be pushed downwardsagainst spring 268, causing arms 270 and 272 to splay outwards away fromeach other. When under tension in this way, spring 268 biases ferrule226 upwards in direction 278 against tab 190 of bracket 228 (FIG. 19),so that ferrule 226 (i.e., the ground conductor of coaxial cable 56B) isshorted to ground plane 54-2 (e.g., housing 12).

Spring 268 is also shown (behind frame cross member 280) in theperspective view of FIG. 21. Polyester film 282 may be used to protectflex circuit 288 from damage. Adhesive 284 may be used to mount battery204 to frame 290. Polyester film 286 may be used to protect battery 204(e.g., by preventing puncture damage to the relatively thin batterycase).

As shown in FIG. 22, coaxial cable 56A may be connected to printedcircuit board 292 of transceiver 52A using coaxial cable connector 296.Electromagnetic shielding cases 200 and 294 may be used to provideradio-frequency EMI shielding for the circuitry of transceiver 52A. Forexample, shield 294 may be a metal shield that is soldered to printedcircuit board 292 to shield one or more transceiver integrated circuits,whereas shield 200 may be a metal shield that is attached by snaps toshield discrete components associated with transceiver 52A.

Frame 290 may have a sheet metal core (e.g., a stainless steel sheet of0.3 mm thickness) that is surrounded by a plastic overmold. Theovermolded plastic parts that make up frame 290 may provide detailedstructures that would be difficult to fabricate from stainless steel.Metal screws 297 may be used to secure conductive bezel 14 to exposedsheet metal portions 298 of frame 290, thereby shorting bezel 14 toframe 290 and ensuring that both bezel 14 and frame 290 form part ofground plane 54-2.

Ferrules 226 or other suitable conductive fasteners may be electricallyconnected to frame 290 and bezel 14 using a bracket (e.g., a J-bracket)or other suitable conductive member. The bracket may be connected toferrules 226 by soldering, welding, or by physical contact (i.e., bycrimping the bracket to ferrules 226 with or without soldering orwelding). With one suitable arrangement, the conductive member is formedof metal (e.g., magnesium or aluminum) and has bendable extensions(i.e., fingers). The bendable extensions may be crimped over theferrules or other conductive fasteners during assembly to attach theconductive member to the ferrules and the coaxial cables. If device 10needs to be reworked or recycled, the coaxial cables may be releasedfrom the conductive member and device 10 by bending the extensions awayfrom the conductive fasteners on the cables.

A detailed view of an illustrative arrangement for forming a connectionbetween coaxial cable 56A and the antenna structures of device 10 isshown in FIG. 23. As shown in FIG. 23, coaxial cable 56A may beconnected to flex circuit 210 using a coaxial cable connector 110. Thecenter conductor 108 (FIG. 12) of cable 56A and connector 110 may beconnected to antenna conductor 112. Capacitor 114 or other tuningcomponents may be used to connect conductor 112 to conductor 304.Conductor 304 may be connected to portion 116 of antenna resonatingelement 54-1A. As with the traces that make up antenna resonatingelement 54-1A on the top surface of flex circuit 210, conductors 112 and114 may be formed as traces on flex circuit 210. If desired, flexcircuit 210 may have traces on two sides. Use of a single-sided flexcircuit arrangement, in which traces 112, 114, and the other antennatraces are formed on a single side of flex circuit 210 may help toreduce the cost and complexity of the antenna. Flex circuit traces maybe formed of any suitable conductor such as copper.

Epoxy 306 may be used to provide structural support for capacitor 114(e.g., to prevent capacitor 114 from being damaged during assembly).Adhesive 308 may be used to attach flex circuit 210 to the end face ofantenna cap 102. Frame 290 may have screw hole 302. Bracket 248 (FIGS.17 and 19) may be attached to frame 290 by screwing a screw (i.e., screw218 of FIG. 17) into hole 302. Spring 246 can be attached to dockconnector 20 using screw 220 of FIG. 17. When screw 220 has been screwedinto place (through one of bezel prongs 186 of FIG. 15, bezel 14, clip246, conductive strip 104 of antenna resonating element 54-1A, and dockconnector 20 are shorted together as described in connection withforming the connections at point 106 of ground plane 54-2 in FIG. 12.

A perspective top view of device 10 with internal structures (such asdisplay 16) removed is shown in FIG. 24. As shown in FIG. 24, flexcircuit 288 may be used to form a bus that conveys signals from dockconnector 20 to processing circuitry located towards end 326 of device10. The overall shape of antenna slot 70 is formed by the boundaries ofbezel 14 and frame 290 (which lies along dotted line 23). This overallshape can be influenced by electrical components that lie within itsboundaries. Certain components, such as microphone 244 and speaker 316may be isolated from the antenna using inductors (as an example). Othercomponents (e.g., button 320) may be isolated from the antenna usinginductors or resistors (as an example). Isolating components in this waycan eliminate or substantially reduce any impact these components mighthave on the effective area of slot 70.

Dock connector 20 may contain metal that overlaps the otherwiserectangular shape of slot 70. Moreover, flex circuit 288 contains signaltraces and ground traces. The conductive material in these traces actsas a portion of the ground plane of device 10 and therefore can alterthe effective shape of slot 70. As shown in the illustrative arrangementof FIG. 24, flex circuit 288 may be routed around the edge of slot 70immediately adjacent to bezel 14.

Speaker flex circuit 312 may be used to route signals from flex circuit288 to speaker module 316. Speaker flex circuit 312 may be connected toflex circuit bus 288 by soldering (as an example). Components 314 mayinclude isolation inductors and other electrical components forsupporting the operation of speaker module 316. Electrical components318 may be used to support the operation of dock connector 20.

Stiffener 322 may be used to support flex circuit 288 as flex circuit288 passes towards microphone 244 and button 320. A flex circuitextension (i.e., a tail of flex circuit 288) in the vicinity of region324 may be used to connect the leads of menu button 320 to flex circuit288. Menu button 320 may be a dome switch or any other suitable userinterface control. Components 330 may be formed using inductors (e.g.,traditional wire-wrapped inductors or ferrite chip inductors) orresistors. Components 330 may be used to help isolate button 320 fromthe antennas of device (e.g., to prevent button 320 from significantlyinfluencing the shape of slot 70). Electrical components 328 may includeinductors for isolating microphone 244 from the antennas of device 10.

Pressure sensitive adhesive 332 may be used to mount battery 204. Foam334 may help to prevent damage to display 16. Alignment posts 336 ondock connector 20 may be used to help align flex circuit 288.

As shown in FIG. 25, extension 338 of flex circuit 288 may be used tomake electrical connections between flex circuit 288 and button 320.Ground bracket 248 may have an indentation such as indentation 340 thatmates with a rib on frame 290.

FIG. 26 shows how dock connector 20 may have 30 pins 342 (as anexample). A flange formed from metal mounting tabs 344 may be welded tothe main body of dock connector 20. Screws 220 and 346 may be screwedinto threads on metal mounting tabs 344 through holes in tabs 186 (FIG.15) of bezel 14. Screw 348 may be screwed into frame 290 to securegrounding bracket 248 to the frame. Screws such as screw 348 may bescrewed into portions of frame 290 that are added to frame 290 after theplastic overmolded portion of frame 290 has been formed. These addedportions of frame 290 may, for example, be added using a heat stakingprocess.

The presence of spring 246, which forms part of an antenna terminal forthe hybrid PIFA/slot antenna, helps to reduce the tolerance required inconnecting bezel 14 to the antenna.

As shown in FIG. 27, speaker 316 may have an associated port 350,through which sound may emanate during device operation. In the rearview of FIG. 27, speaker port 350 is located on the right side ofhousing 12 and microphone port 260 is located on the left size ofhousing 12. This is merely illustrative. Speaker port 350 and microphoneport 260 may be located on any suitable portion of housing 12 (e.g.,front face, rear face, top side, bottom side, left side, or right side).As shown in FIG. 27, screws 254 may hold housing brackets 250 to theframe. The view of FIG. 27 does not include antenna cap 102, socomponents such as speaker module 316 are visible beneath flex circuit210.

A perspective view of the interior of device 10 is shown in FIG. 28.Battery leads 352 may be used to convey power from battery 204 to theelectronics of device 10. Leads 352 may be soldered to printed circuitboards such as printed circuit board 292. There may be any suitablenumber of leads 352 (e.g., ground, positive, and negative). Screws 354may be used to screw circuit boards such as circuit board 292 to theframe of device 10.

Radio-frequency shielding (sometimes called EMI shielding) may beprovided in the form of conductive cans 200 and 198. Shielding cans 200and 198 (which are sometimes referred to as EMI enclosures,radio-frequency enclosures, or shielding housings) may be constructedfrom metal or other suitable conductive materials. Can 200 may be usedto shield transceiver 52A (FIG. 3), whereas can 198 may be used toshield transceiver 52B (FIG. 3).

Coaxial cable 56B may be connected to the transceiver in can 198 usingcoaxial cable connector 376. Coaxial cable 56A may be connected to thetransceiver in can 200 using coaxial cable connector 296.

A conductive foam pad such as pad 358 may be affixed to the top of can200 to help ground can 200. When the cover of the housing of device 10is installed, conductive foam 358 may rub against an exposed portion ofthe interior of the housing, thereby electrically shorting can 200 tothe housing. Can 200 may also have bent up fingers 356 that rub againstthe housing to short can 200 to the housing. Bent up fingers 370 on can198 may be used to short can 198 to the housing.

To ensure that fingers such as fingers 370 and 356 make good electricalcontact with the housing, the portions of the housing that contact thefingers may be processed to remove any nonconductive coatings. Forexample, if the housing is an anodized aluminum housing that has anonconductive anodized coating, the anodized layer may be removed bylaser etching in the regions of the housing that contact fingers 370 and356 and the regions of the housing that contact other shortingstructures such as conductive foam 358. Cans 198 and 200 may be used toshield one or more layers of printed circuit board (e.g., multiplestacked printed circuit boards). These circuit boards may be used tomount integrated circuits and/or discrete components.

Camera module 196 may have a lens 372. Lens 372 may be a fixed focallength lens (as an example). Camera module 196 may be used to acquirestill images and video images (e.g., video containing audio). Cameraflex circuit 377 may be used to electrically connect camera module 196to the printed circuit boards of device 10.

Recess 360 may be configured to receive components such as an audio jackand other input-output components. Holes 374 may be formed in the touchscreen module of display 16 to reduce weight.

As shown in FIG. 29, device 10 may use a connector such as connector 378to receive a flex circuit plug. The flex circuit plug and its associatedflex circuit may be used to convey electrical signals to the circuitryof device 10 from components such as an audio jack, volume button, holdbutton, and ringer select button.

As shown in FIG. 30, SIM card tray 202 may have a spring 380. Spring 380may have a bent portion 382. When compressed, bent portion 382 can pressupwards (in the orientation of FIG. 30) against a SIM card to hold theSIM card in place in tray 202.

A cross-sectional view of housing 12 is shown in FIG. 31. As shown inFIG. 31, a conductive member such as J-clip 384 may be used to securecoaxial cables 56A and 56B. J-clip 384 may be electrically connected toconductive portions of frame 290 (e.g., exposed metal portions), therebyshorting ferrules 226 (and thus the outer braid conductor of coaxialcables 56A and 56B) to frame 290 and the other portions of ground plane54-2.

J-clip 384 may have a generally horizontal planar base member such asbase member 390 and a generally vertical planar member such as verticalplanar member 388. J-clip base 390 may be welded to the metal of frame290 or may otherwise be electrically and mechanically connected to frame290. Base 390 may have alignment holes 400. During assembly, an assemblytool with mating protrusions may engage holes 400 and hold J-clip 384 inplace for welding.

J-clip 384 may have bendable extensions such as clip extensions 386.Extensions 386 may be manually crimped in place over coaxial cables 56Aand 56B during assembly. If desired, extensions 386 may, at a latertime, be bent backwards to release coaxial cables 56A and 56B. Thisreleasable fastening arrangement allows for rework. For example, cables56A and 56B can be replaced. The ability to remove cables 56A and 56Bfrom device 10 may also be advantageous when disassembling device 10(e.g., when recycling all or part of device 10). Extensions 386 may haveany suitable shape. For example, extensions 386 may be provided in theform of relatively narrow fingers that are easy to crimp and uncrimp.Alternatively, extensions 386 may be provided in the form of relativelywider tabs. Wide tab shapes may make good electrical contact withferrules 226, but may be harder to crimp and uncrimp than narrowerextension structures.

Spring 392 may be formed from metal or other suitable springy conductivematerial. Spring 392 may be glued or otherwise mounted in a channelbetween the side wall of housing 12 and housing bracket 234. Duringassembly, fingers on bezel 14 engage holes on spring clip 392, therebysecuring bezel 14 to housing 12.

Housing bracket 234 may be glued or otherwise affixed to housing 12.Allowable excess glue 394 is shown above bracket 234. The housingbracket that is shown in FIG. 31 is sometimes referred to as the lefthousing bracket of device 10. Device 10 may also have a correspondingright housing bracket.

Display 16 may be mounted to housing 12 using bezel 14 and gasket 150.Display 16 may have a planar glass element such as glass element 404 anda touch sensitive element such as touch sensitive element 402. Frame 290may have a conductive element such as sheet metal plate 396. Sheet metalplate 396 may be electrically and mechanically connected to sheet metalplate 397 (e.g., by welding, by gluing, by using fasteners, etc.). Foam398 may be used to help protect display 16 from shock (e.g., in theevent that device 10 is dropped).

A top view of device 10 in the vicinity of J-clip 384 is shown in FIG.32. As shown in the FIG. 32 example, extensions 386 may be used to crimpcoaxial cables 56A and 56B at various segments along their lengths. Inthe example of FIG. 32, there are four sets of extensions 386 ofsubstantially equal size that are spaced equally along edge 406 ofdevice 12. If desired, the segments of cables that are electricallyconnected to extensions 386 may be of different sizes or there may be adifferent number of extensions 386. For example, there may be more thanfour extensions 386, there may be two larger extensions 386 and twosmaller extensions 386, etc. There may also be only a single extension386 along edge 406, although arrangements with more than one extensionare generally easier to uncrimp when desired for rework or recycling andare therefore generally preferred.

As shown in FIG. 33, grounding bracket 248 may be used to short theground connector portion of coaxial cable connector 110 to bezel 14.

FIG. 34 shows a partially cross-sectional interior view of device 10. Asshown in FIG. 34, bracket 234 may have a long, relatively uninterruptedrail portion such as rail 412 and, at intervals, may have extendingfingers 410. Spring 392 may have a relatively uninterrupted rail portion416 (mostly hidden from view in FIG. 34) and, at intervals, may haveextending fingers 418. Fingers 410 of bracket 234 and fingers 418 ofspring 392 may be interleaved as shown in FIG. 34. Bracket 234 may haveholes 414 in rail 412. During manufacturing, an assembly tool may holdbracket 234 by engaging holes 414 with mating prongs. Spring 392 mayhave holes such as rectangular holes 420. Bezel 14 may have matingprongs. During assembly, the mating prongs from bezel 14 may slide intorectangular holes 420 to secure bezel 14 in place relative to housing 12of device 10.

As shown in FIG. 35, rail 416 of spring 394 may have alignment holes422. During manufacturing, an assembly tool may hold spring 394 usingprongs that mate with holes 422.

A bracket such as top bracket 440 (e.g., a bracket formed of aconductive material such as magnesium or aluminum) may be attached tohousing 12 at the top of device (e.g., using screws, glue, etc.). Abracket such as sheet metal bracket 424 may be attached to top bracket440 using screws such as screws 426. A flex circuit for a hold button orother suitable button may be attached to bracket 424. A protective filmsuch as polyester protective film 428 may cover the flex circuit toprevent damage. Flex circuit 436 may be used to route signals tocircuitry 432 from a hold button mounted to bracket 428 (as an example).Circuitry 432 to which flex circuit 436 is routed may include jack 378(FIG. 29).

SIM card ejector arm 436 may swing about pivot 238. Spring 438 may biasSIM card ejector arm 436, so that arm 436 may be used to eject a SIMcard from device 10. Flex circuit 434 may make contact with overlappingprinted circuit boards (not shown in FIG. 35).

A detailed cross-sectional view of bezel 14 in the vicinity of spring392 is shown in FIG. 36. As shown in FIG. 36, bezel 14 may have extendedmembers such as prongs 442 that mate with corresponding rectangularholes 420 in fingers 418 of spring 392. Spring 392 may be mountedbetween housing 12 and bracket 234, so when bezel prongs 442 protrudeinto spring 392, bezel 14 is held into place.

As described in connection with FIG. 14, a handheld electronic devicewith a conductive bezel may define a slot 70 that is roughly rectangularin shape (as an example). In a device such as the illustrative handheldelectronic device described in connection with FIGS. 15-36, componentsthat contain conductive elements may overlap with the rectangular slotthat is formed by bezel 14 and the conductive portion of housing 12 andframe 290. These overlapping components may alter the shape of slot 70.

As shown in FIG. 37, for example, in region 18 of device 10, slot 70 mayhave a roughly rectangular shape arising from the rectangular openingdefined by bezel 14 (to the left of dotted line 23 in FIG. 37) andhousing/frame 12/290 (to the right of dotted line 23). Dock connector20, which may be formed of a conductive material such as metal (e.g.,stainless steel), may be grounded to bezel 14. As a result, dockconnector 20 may form part of the ground plane 54-2 for device 10. Inthe example of FIG. 37, dock connector 20 protrudes into the otherwiserectangular opening of slot 70, thereby altering its rectangular shape.In particular, dock connector 20 adds a length of 2LA to the interiorperimeter of slot 70. Flex bus connector 288 also contains conductiveelements (e.g., copper ground and signal traces). Flex connector 288therefore also alters the shape of slot 70, resulting in a shortening ofthe length of perimeter P of 2LB.

As described in connection with dotted line 79 of FIG. 6, there may be apeak antenna resonance associated with slot 70. The position of the peakresonance may be determined by the length of perimeter P. In general,the peak resonance of the slot antenna portion of the antenna of device10 is located where the radio-frequency signal wavelength is equal tothe length of perimeter P. In device 10, the perimeter P of slot 70 maybe determined by the size of the rectangular opening formed by bezel 14and frame/housing 12/290 and by the modifications to this rectangularopening that arise from the presence of connector 20 and flex circuit288. If desired, the locations and shapes of dock connector 20 and flexcircuit 288 may be selected so that the perimeter length reduction (2LB)that arises from the presence of flex circuit 288 cancels out theperimeter length addition (2LA) that arises from the presence of dockconnector 20 (i.e., lengths LA and LB may be substantially equal).

As shown in FIG. 25, components such as microphone 244, button 320, andspeaker 316 may also overlap with slot 70. These components may beprevented from significantly altering the value of antenna slotperimeter P by using isolation circuitry. For example, inductors may beplaced on the leads of microphone 244 (e.g., in circuitry 328).Similarly, inductors may be placed on the leads of speaker 316 (e.g., incircuitry 314). Inductors may also be placed on the leads of button 320(see, e.g., components 330). At low frequencies, such as at frequenciesin the kilohertz range and below, which includes the audio frequencieshandled by microphone 328 and speaker 316, the inductors allow currentto pass freely (i.e., the inductors act as short circuits). At radiofrequencies (i.e., at 300 MHz or more, and particularly at frequenciesof 850 MHz to 2.4 MHz or greater), the inductors have a large impedanceand act as open circuits, thereby isolating microphone 244, speaker 316,and button 320. When microphone 244, speaker 316, and button 320 areisolated from the radio-frequency antenna signals, microphone 244,speaker 316, and button 320 do not affect the value of perimeter P forslot 70 and do not load the antenna resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B.

The isolating inductors that are used to isolate electrical componentssuch as microphone 244, speaker 316, and button 320 may be conventionalwire-wrapped inductors or may be somewhat smaller inductors of the typethat are sometimes referred to as ferrite chip inductors. An advantageof using ferrite chip inductors is that they have a small size. Anadvantage of using conventional wire-wrapped inductors is that they tendnot to create the types of antenna losses that might arise when usingferrite chip inductors in close proximity to antenna resonatingelements.

If desired, components such as microphone 244, speaker 316, and button320 can be isolated using isolation elements other than inductors, suchas resistors. As shown in FIG. 38, button 320 may, as an example, beisolated using isolation elements 330 (e.g., resistors). Resistors 330may be placed on the leads of button 320 between button 320 and controlcircuitry 36 (e.g., where shown by components 330 in FIG. 25). In afully assembled handheld electronic device, button 320 may overlapantenna resonating elements such as antenna resonating elements 54-1Aand 54-1B (FIG. 19).

The close proximity of button 320 and the antenna resonating elementscan create antenna losses. Moreover, the overlap between button 320 andantenna slot 70 can affect the shape of slot 70 and its perimeter P,potentially affecting the location of the resonant peak of the handhelddevice antenna. By selecting resistors 330 of sufficient size, theimpact of button 320 on perimeter P can be eliminated or substantiallyreduced and the possibility of antenna losses due to the close proximityof button 320 and the antenna resonating elements can be eliminated orsubstantially reduced.

With one suitable arrangement, the values of resistors 330 may be about3000 ohms. This value is sufficiently high to at least partially isolatebutton 320, while allowing direct current (DC) control signals (e.g.,relatively low frequency button press signals in the kilohertz range orlower) to pass from button 320 to control circuitry 36. Althoughdescribed primarily in the context of isolating menu button 320 fromradio-frequency signals, resistors may be used to isolate any suitabletype of electrical component that is potentially subject toradio-frequency interference (e.g., any other electrical component thatoverlaps slot 70 and/or antenna resonating elements such as antennaresonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B).

FIG. 39 shows how an electronic component such as menu button 320 mayoverlap resonating elements 54-1A and 54-1B (i.e., in a top view fromthe front face or rear face of device 10).

FIG. 40 shows an illustrative coaxial cable of the type that may be usedfor coaxial cables 56A and 56B in handheld electronic device 10. Asshown in FIG. 40, cable 56 may have a center conductor 444. Dielectriclayer 446 may surround center conductor 444. Ground conductor 448 maysurround dielectric layer 446. Segments of insulator 450 may surroundground conductor 448 at one or more locations along the length ofcoaxial cable 56. Cable 56 may have one or more exposed (bare) segmentsof ground conductor 448 at one or more locations 452 along the length ofcable 56. At least some of locations 452 may be spaced so that they areequidistant from each other. If desired, some of locations 452 may bespaced at locations that are not equidistant with respect to each other.There may be any suitable number of locations 452 (e.g., one, two,three, more than three, etc.). There may also be any suitable number ofinsulating segments 450 (e.g., no segments, one segment, two segments,three segments, more than three segments, etc.). Ferrules 226 or othersuitable conductive fasteners may be crimped or otherwise mechanicallyand electrically attached to ground conductor 448 of cable 56 inlocations 452. If desired, additional layers of material (e.g.,insulating and conductive material) may be included in cable 56. Thelayers of insulator and conductor that are shown in FIG. 40 are merelyillustrative.

Cables such as cable 56 of FIG. 40 with alternating exposed groundconductor and insulated segments may be formed using any suitabletechnique (e.g., by selectively covering a bare cable with insulatingsegments, by selectively stripping an insulated cable, or by using acombination of these techniques). Insulating materials that may be usedin cable 56 include polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylchloride, etc.Conductive materials that may be used in cable 56 include copper,aluminum, metallized polyester tape, etc.

An antenna performance graph showing how the resonant peak of a handheldelectronic device antenna having a ground plane with a slot can beadjusted by positioning electronic components to change the innerperimeter of the slot is shown in FIG. 41. The resonant frequency peakof a communications band being handled by an antenna that contains aslot of a given inner perimeter may be f_(a) (as an example). The innerperimeter of the slot is generally equal to about one wavelength of theradio-frequency signal. Proper operation of the antenna at frequencyf_(a) may be ensured by positioning components such as a dock connector,flex circuit, conductive housing, and conductive bezel relative to oneanother to achieve an inner perimeter of a desired length.

When designing an antenna to operate in another frequency band, theshape of the antenna slot and its inner perimeter can be changedaccordingly. For example, if it is desired to design an antenna foroperation at a frequency f_(b) that is larger than frequency f_(a), theinner perimeter P may be shortened. This will cause the resonantfrequency of the antenna to shift from the frequency f_(a) (solid line500) to f_(b) (dotted line 502), as shown in FIG. 41. One way to shortenthe inner perimeter of an antenna slot in an antenna ground planeinvolves positioning a dock connector, flex circuit or othercomponent(s) in device 10 so that an end of the slot is truncated (as anexample). In general, any suitable adjustments may be made to thepositions of the dock connector, flex circuit, bezel, conductivehousing, or other conductive components in a handheld electronic deviceto achieve a desired slot shape and inner perimeter.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this inventionand various modifications can be made by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless communications device having a frontface defined by opposing first and second edges and opposing third andfourth edges, comprising: a glass element that covers the front facefrom the first edge to the second edge and from the third edge to thefourth edge, wherein the glass element includes a hole.
 2. The wirelesscommunications device defined in claim 1, further comprising a metalbezel that surrounds the glass element.
 3. The wireless communicationsdevice defined in claim 1, further comprising a plastic bezel coatedwith metal, wherein the plastic bezel that is coated with metalsurrounds the glass element.
 4. The wireless communications devicedefined in claim 1, wherein the glass element has a lower end andwherein the hole is in the lower end.
 5. The wireless communicationsdevice defined in claim 4, further comprising a button disposed withinthe hole.
 6. The wireless communications device defined in claim 5,wherein the button is the only physical input mechanism within the lowerend.
 7. The wireless communications device defined in claim 5, whereinthe button allows a user to supply an input command to the wirelesscommunications device and wherein the button is round and has a concaveexterior surface.
 8. The wireless communications device defined in claim1, further comprising: an additional hole; and a speaker at theadditional hole.
 9. The wireless communications device defined in claim8, further comprising: a radio-frequency transceiver; an antenna ground;at least a first antenna resonating element that forms a first antennawith the antenna ground; at least a first transmission line having anouter ground conductor, having a first end that is connected to theradio-frequency transceiver, and having a second end that is connectedto the antenna; a plurality of conductive fasteners connected to thetransmission line at locations along its length between the first andsecond ends; and a conductive member that mechanically and electricallyconnects the conductive fasteners to the antenna ground.
 10. A wirelesscommunications device, comprising: a housing having a metal portion anda plastic portion; a display disposed within the housing, wherein thedisplay has a front surface, the front surface including an upperregion, a middle region, and a lower region; a button disposed withinthe lower region of the front surface of the display; and a speaker holedisposed within the upper region of the front surface of the display.11. The wireless communications device defined in claim 10, wherein thebutton is the only physical input mechanism within the lower region. 12.The wireless communications device defined in claim 10, wherein themetal portion surrounds the periphery of the display including theupper, middle, and lower regions.
 13. The wireless communications devicedefined in claim 10, wherein the metal portion includes a portion thatis flush with the front surface of the display.
 14. The wirelesscommunications device defined in claim 10, wherein the wirelesscommunications device has a front surface and wherein the front surfaceof the display covers most of the available surface area of the frontsurface of the wireless communications device.
 15. The wirelesscommunications device defined in claim 10, wherein the front surface ofthe display is formed from glass.
 16. The wireless communications devicedefined in claim 10, wherein the display comprises a touch screen. 17.The wireless communications device defined in claim 10 wherein thewireless communications device has a rear surface formed by the housing,wherein the housing has a camera opening on the rear surface, andwherein the wireless communications device further comprises a camera atthe camera opening.
 18. The wireless communications device defined inclaim 10, further comprising an antenna having an antenna ground planeand an antenna resonating element, wherein the plastic portion of thehousing overlaps the antenna at the second end.
 19. The wirelesscommunications device defined in claim 18, further comprising: aradio-frequency transceiver; a transmission line having an outer groundconductor, having a first end that is connected to the radio-frequencytransceiver, and having a second end that is connected to the antenna; aplurality of conductive fasteners connected to the transmission line atlocations along its length between the first and second ends; and aconductive member that mechanically and electrically connects at leastone of the plurality of conductive fasteners to the antenna groundplane.
 20. The wireless communications device defined in claim 19,further comprising: a metal tab that is electrically connected to thehousing; and a spring that presses at least one of the plurality ofconductive fasteners against the metal tab.
 21. The wirelesscommunications device defined in claim 20 wherein the transmission linecomprises a coaxial cable and wherein at least some of the plurality ofconductive fasteners are crimped to the outer ground conductor.
 22. Thewireless communications device defined in claim 10, further comprising aconnector port in the housing.
 23. The wireless communications devicedefined in claim 10, wherein the button allows a user to supply an inputcommand to the wireless communications device and wherein the button isround and has a concave exterior surface.